Isla Verde and Condado

Puerto Rico's convenience for American travellers is best illustrated here: you can land at San Juan, take a fifteen-minute taxi and be on a wide Atlantic beach with a drink, without a passport and using dollars. Isla Verde is the closer strip, a run of high-rise hotels along a long stretch of pale sand with reliable trade winds and lively weekend crowds. Condado, nearer the old city, is the smarter end, with a lagoon behind it, boutiques and a beach broken into small coves by rock outcrops that make for sheltered swimming. All beaches on the island are public by law, so the hotel frontages are open to anyone. Old San Juan's forts and blue cobbles are a short ride west.

What you actually see

• Isla Verde beach - the long sand strip minutes from the airport.
• Condado's coves - sheltered swimming between rock outcrops.
• Condado lagoon - paddleboarding and kayaking behind the beach.
• The old city nearby - the forts and colonial streets a short ride west.

When to go

December to April is the dry high season with the best weather and the highest prices; summer is hot, wetter and cheaper, and hurricane season runs June into November. Weekends bring San Juan residents to the beaches, which is when they are liveliest.

Honest expectations

These are city beaches with hotels behind them rather than a secluded Caribbean idyll; for that you drive to the west coast or take the ferry to Culebra and Vieques. The Atlantic here has real surf and undertow at times, and lifeguard coverage is patchy. Ordinary city awareness applies after dark away from the lit strips.

Nearby

Old San Juan is fifteen minutes west; El Yunque rainforest is an hour east.